And Now We Are Twenty-Eight

My birthday was the other... week and I am now twenty-eight years old.

I don't really know what else to say about that.

I do think this year is going to be a good year.  I'm going to get married when I'm 28.  More than likely we're going to get a puppy when I'm 28.  No doubt at least one other good thing will happen in the next 355 days or so.

All the same, 28.  That's a big number.  For me.

So anyway, here are some pictures of frost.  Which seems to be the sum total of winter we're going to get around here.

This happened a couple of weeks ago now.  Though something sort of similar did happen Saturday morning.  But I didn't venture outside for that one.

But we have this giant pine tree out in our front yard that took the frost really well.  And looked very cool.  So I got a little fascinated.

We have a smaller pine tree closer to our door that had really, really cool frosted pine cones as well.  But it was also pretty windy and, yeah, they just would not sit still long enough to focus on them.  It was very irritating.

Also there was actual snow involved this time.  Which promptly melted.  But it looked pretty for the roughly 12 hours it hung around.  and I got to stomp around in it for awhile.  And pretend I'm something more like just eight.  Without the twenty in front of it.

A weekend of two ago there were puddles in the Target parking lot.  Steve more or less dared me to splash in them on the way in and I didn't.  On the way back to the car though, I was all over that.  To the point where he ran away from me so I wouldn't splash on him.  And he started telling me I was getting my purse dirty, etc.  I didn't care, I was having fun.  And acting like a kid.  Which everyone should do now and then.

A Day At The Races. No, Seriously.

I swear to God, I didn't know this was going to happen.  See, I started writing my Pygmalion post in my head on the day we had our little party.  (That would be the 7th of August, for those of you playing at home.)  I totally knew what I wanted to name it because well, I enjoy attempting to be clever and I knew at least my mom would get the joke.  (And I know she's one of my limited readers so I may as well play to the crowd I have.)

At that point in time I had absolutely no idea that roughly a week later (and indeed, before I actually WROTE my Pygmalion post - even for the first time) Steve would turn to me and say something along the lines of "hey, you know what would be fun for my birthday?  Going to Canterbury and seeing the horses." I had to agree with him, that would be fun for his birthday.  And thus, last Sunday, we spent the day at the races.

We are not what you'd call "educated betters."  We tend to bet on the horse we feel has the coolest name.  We were once at Canterbury for the day and were totally psyched to bet on a horse named "Freckles O'Brian" only to lose him to a late scratch.  My favorite on Sunday was a horse named "Case in Point."  How do you not bet on a horse named Case in Point?  I mean, come on.  (He won us some money too, so that was pretty cool.)  Steve's parents, who joined us for the day, were a bit more scientific with their bets.  Tracking jockeys and following the odds and all kinds of stuff that's way less fun than picking the best name.  Of course, Steve's mom won in something like 6 of 8 races and his dad hit a trifecta in one race so theirs was probably a better plan.

Come to think of it, that kind of makes me feel like:

Get it?  That's a little horse humor for you there.  You have to admit though, as far as horses asses go, this one is awfully pretty.

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You Say It's Your Birthday (dun dun dadada da)

It's my birthday too!

Today is - indeed - my golden birthday. Ohhh, shiny. So I remember when I around around eleven or twelve and I though it was this really big deal to have your golden birthday and I was bummed because mine was, like, never going to come. Now I pretty much think I'm turning 26 and that blows pretty hard.

I have very little interest in being 26. Boo.

Anyway, my b-day has gone pretty well I suppose. Steve made a very tasty dinner, I opened some really cool presents, watched a slightly weird movie, and ate a seriously awesome $6 birthday cake from Target. There are further festivities on Saturday in celebration of me, so that's pretty cool.

I don't have a birthday themed photo today. Basically I was going to take a picture of my cake... but then I got way too interested in eating my cake and I kind of forgot. Whoops. Seriously that was some really awesome cake.

So this is actually a close up of one of the speakers on our record player. See Steve and I thrive on being really giant nerds and snobs all at the same time. Our collective snobbery/nerdery ranges from chocolate and beer (those two are just me really) to video games, music, movies, books, and computers. While back we took the music nerd/snob gig to a whole new level - we got a record player and started collecting LPs. Yup, we're those people. To be fair I've met people who a WAY BIGGER record snobs than us. I think we just genuinely like the way LPs sound and so on and so forth. Anyway, I enjoy the pattern the cloth over the speakers makes, especially when it's offset by the wood of the case.

What a Guy.

It's been a long time since Steve's had as much occasion to laugh at me so much in one night as last night. So here's the thing: Steve is not big on football. He's a hockey guy. Me? I'm a football girl. Actually, no. That's not true. I'm a baseball girl. I effin loves me some baseball. But I'm pretty big on football too. My grandpa was a high school football coach so to say I grew up with it would be a pretty fair assessment. It was also a good way to hang out with my dad and brother while I was growing up, so I got pretty into it.

I also tend to be a... loud football fan. I yell at the TV a lot when I watch football. Especially when they play badly. And especially when it's the Vikings. Because - let's be serious. The Vikings are about the meanest team in the NFL. Every freaking year they break the hearts of every single one of their fans. The bastards. And I knew last night was going to happen too. I just knew it. Because it wouldn't have been enough to lose to Dallas. No, no. They had to get as close to getting to the Super Bowl as possible AND THEN lose. That's much more dramatic; much more heartbreaking. Indeed I had the opportunity last night to send this text message: "I really, really, really hate to say I told you so... but I did."

So if you watched the game last night it's probably pretty obvious that I did A LOT of yelling at the TV last night. Lots of TWO HANDS WHILE YOU CARRY THE FOOTBALL. And in general just a lot of cursing and gasping and such. And Steve likes to make fun of me for such reactions. Never mind that when he watches hockey I can hear him cheering down the hall, through the bedroom door, and over the TV; that doesn't seem to factor into the situation.

In the end though, he's quite a guy. Because he sat there and teased me for hours on end. But then, when I turned off the TV and said "Well, I'm going to bed" he let me open a birthday present early. And what did I get but a really gorgeous necklace:

I love it. Stars are among my favorite shapes, and this adds a slightly feminine, grown up feeling to a star shape. As I've talked like ten times in the last 25 days about other times I like light shining through things, it should come as no surprise that I like the cut-out aspect of this necklace as well. I think the stone in the middle is just a crystal of some kind, but the color is reminiscent of garnet, which is my birthstone, which I love. So all and all - excellent birthday gift. Really pretty choice, hun, but damn is it hard to take a decent picture of it.

Chris

I miss you, buddy.

And Many More...

Today is my brother's birthday. My brother's about the coolest guy I know and I'm spending much of my day today hoping he has a good birthday and a really, really good year. My brother needs a good year, so I have my fingers crossed for him. I sincerely doubt he reads this but if he is: I love ya, big brother. Have a good one. And here's hoping that one lasts a long time.

So I was looking around the house today for something that might be slightly related to birthdays. What did I come up with? Candles! I got these at Target last year and I think they're the coolest. They look like logs on the outside, only glittery. I love the contrast of the gold with the darker brown/bronze and the way they catch the light.